The Seahorse Club!

[Felicia]

Will do! As for the pipefish, all I know of is ocean rider, but when I asked about alternatives on seahorse.org, they suggested I talk to Jim Welsh about it. He is involved in breeding efforts for pipefish, for those of you unaware. I am also keeping track of the syngathid section on MBI. Other than that, some of the people on the seahorse breeder's registry are also listed as breeding pipefish, so I suppose when the time comes I will contact them to ask about it as well. Everyone is currently out of stock, yes. I emailed Dan from seahorse source about it a few weeks ago and he said his Barbouri had decided to take a break for a while. He also mentioned that Barbouri are slow growers, and take about 9 months to reach maturity. So I am expecting at least a years' wait for seahorse source. Southwatch seahorse farms also offer Barbouri, and while they don't have any ATM, they might have some before seahorse source does. Thanks! I will probably start a build thread when I am finally ready to add livestock. I am taking pictures of the process and will post those when the time comes, though. ATM I am installing a GCFI and a plastic cover for the plug. The canopy is in rough condition, so I will be fixing that up pretty soon. As for why more people don't keep SH, I think it is probably a combination of not being able to keep them in a typical reef tank, the cost of a chiller, the limited choices for tankmates, and the bad rep they have from the days before CB were widely available. I think another part of it is just that there are few examples of stunning seahorse tanks, compared to all the pictures there are of fantastic reef tanks. Not to say that few seahorse tanks are stunning, but rather that those with stunning seahorse tanks often neglect to post pictures and share them with the public (hint hint). When tackling a seemingly difficult project like a SH tank, motivation is very important, especially before you have actually invested money in the project.

Keep us posted on your search for pipefish and H. Barbouri. Did you actually talk to Southwatch, or just go by the fact that their website says they are out of stock? Their website isn't up to date, at least for the H. Erectus and most things say out of stock even though they aren't. Just so you know Southwatch doesn't actually answer emails, so your best bet would be to call in the middle of the afternoon (EST) and speak with Jon. He can tell you what they have and when certain seahorses will be available.

 

Well if you decide to do a build thread now, you'd have plenty of people following along. People on here love to watch builds come together and it doesn't matter if there is livestock yet. Half the fun is all the work and planning to get the tank set-up I'd love to see how you're setting up that larger tank and how you're designing it for the seahorses!

 

All very good insights on why more people don't keep seahorses. I think a lot of the issue is the assumptions people have about how difficult they are from when there weren't CB ones readily available. People who have very sensitive SPS tanks devote a ton of dedication to their tanks, so I don't think the work involved is as much the issues. I also don't think needing a chiller is all that limiting since people have them on their little Biocubes and Nanocubes all the time. I do however completely agree about the fact that there aren't that many photos of beautiful seahorse tanks. I did a goole image search for seahorse tanks to get ideas for mine and most of them use fake decorations and look super tacky or are just a mess of overgrown caulerpa! Zia's tank is definitely a stand-out compared to all the others I've seen! I definitely want to make mine just as attractive of a tank as my main reef tank. Plenty of people on here keep nice looking display refugiums, so its weird that people can't make their seahorse tanks look nice. I guess its a different subset of people who keep reefs and who keep seahorses. I think those of us that overlap can use our reef keeping/aquascaping skills to put together some nice looking tanks. I hope mine ends up looking nice anyway!

[oldSWseamomma]

I LOVE this thread ! am following !

[Felicia]

I LOVE this thread ! am following !

Awesome!

[namxas]

Along this subject, does anyone know where I can get a pair of H. barbouris? I've looked everywhere on the net and everyone seems to be out of stock...

 

The trouble with barbs is that they have small broods, and the fry are slow developers when compared to other species, so you really do need to catch them when they're available.

 

FWIW, the only place I'd get SH from would be from Dan at Seahorse Source. He has the best customer service, hands-down IME.

 

Altho we generally keep it on the QT since we've gone "venomous", Renee and I know SH pretty well (we used to breed them), and we're actually still mods on SH.org, so we can help out with SH questions too.

 

Zia's tank is one of the prettiest SH tanks I've ever seen...puts our "main" SH tank we had to shame. Neither of us had the time or patience to keep gorgonians, so it was macro all the way.

 

Here's what it looked like before I took it down when we moved:

 

 

[Felicia]

I just bought my seahorses They are shipping out on Monday for delivery on Tuesday of next week! I am going to be so anxious/giddy until then!

 

They're coming from Southwatch Seahorse (the same place Zia's seahorses are from) and I got to pick out my two ponies from the females they currently have available. Here are the two that I picked. One is a smaller female around 3" long and the other is a larger female around 4.5" long (the one with cerri).

 

Pony #1 I love her white patches!

 

Pony #2 Big girl with great color and cerri!

[Felicia]

The trouble with barbs is that they have small broods, and the fry are slow developers when compared to other species, so you really do need to catch them when they're available.

 

FWIW, the only place I'd get SH from would be from Dan at Seahorse Source. He has the best customer service, hands-down IME.

 

Altho we generally keep it on the QT since we've gone "venomous", Renee and I know SH pretty well (we used to breed them), and we're actually still mods on SH.org, so we can help out with SH questions too.

 

Zia's tank is one of the prettiest SH tanks I've ever seen...puts our "main" SH tank we had to shame. Neither of us had the time or patience to keep gorgonians, so it was macro all the way.

 

Here's what it looked like before I took it down when we moved:

 

 

Its great to have someone knowledgeable on here to help with advice and questions! I hope you hang around the seahorse club to help us out

 

Zia's tank is one of the prettiest reef tanks I've ever seen and definitely the prettiest seahorse tank! I'm hoping mine can be even half as nice looking. That tank you had is pretty nice looking too though! Definitely way better than a lot of the pony tanks I've seen photos of. Nice and lush and colorful! Those are also some very pretty seahorses What species were they?

[Dark_ice]

>.< i cant wait to get mine!!

[JLynn]

So exciting, Felicia! Can't wait to hear more about them! Lovely tank, namxas! That has always been one of my favorites; probably the most tasteful use of tonga I have seen to date. One of my other big favorites is pledosophy's tank. The colors of his macros are stunning. Also a big fan of the 100g on reef central with shoal grass, manattee grass, Erectus, and macros. I can't remember who it was, it was a while back, but it was one of the most stunning planted tanks I have ever seen! You should be able to find a picture of it if you google 'seagrass aquarium' or something like that.

[Felicia]

I will be giving regular updates as soon as I get them! I'll also have plenty of updates on the tank over the weekend because all the corals are in there now. Now I just have to get it all scaped in preparation for the arrival of the seahorses. I don't want to be moving things around on them when they're still settling in. I'll get a FTS up as soon as its all scaped

 

I went and looked up pledosophy's tank and it is stunning! Just so everyone else can see, here it is:

 

Is this the tank on RC you were referring to?

[Zia]

Keep us posted on your search for pipefish and H. Barbouri. Did you actually talk to Southwatch, or just go by the fact that their website says they are out of stock? Their website isn't up to date, at least for the H. Erectus and most things say out of stock even though they aren't. Just so you know Southwatch doesn't actually answer emails, so your best bet would be to call in the middle of the afternoon (EST) and speak with Jon. He can tell you what they have and when certain seahorses will be available.

 

Well if you decide to do a build thread now, you'd have plenty of people following along. People on here love to watch builds come together and it doesn't matter if there is livestock yet. Half the fun is all the work and planning to get the tank set-up I'd love to see how you're setting up that larger tank and how you're designing it for the seahorses!

 

All very good insights on why more people don't keep seahorses. I think a lot of the issue is the assumptions people have about how difficult they are from when there weren't CB ones readily available. People who have very sensitive SPS tanks devote a ton of dedication to their tanks, so I don't think the work involved is as much the issues. I also don't think needing a chiller is all that limiting since people have them on their little Biocubes and Nanocubes all the time. I do however completely agree about the fact that there aren't that many photos of beautiful seahorse tanks. I did a goole image search for seahorse tanks to get ideas for mine and most of them use fake decorations and look super tacky or are just a mess of overgrown caulerpa! Zia's tank is definitely a stand-out compared to all the others I've seen! I definitely want to make mine just as attractive of a tank as my main reef tank. Plenty of people on here keep nice looking display refugiums, so its weird that people can't make their seahorse tanks look nice. I guess its a different subset of people who keep reefs and who keep seahorses. I think those of us that overlap can use our reef keeping/aquascaping skills to put together some nice looking tanks. I hope mine ends up looking nice anyway!

Very well said Felicia, i think your spot on with your view on assumptions of what people have about the difficulty of keeping seahorse tanks. You are so articulate and well spoken, i always love reading your posts. Thanks for always kind words on my setup

 

 

The trouble with barbs is that they have small broods, and the fry are slow developers when compared to other species, so you really do need to catch them when they're available.

 

FWIW, the only place I'd get SH from would be from Dan at Seahorse Source. He has the best customer service, hands-down IME.

Ive heard nothing but great thing about Dan @ Seahorse Source. I'm in the process of upgrading my tank and will have room for another pair After hearing your great review, i might have to give them a try.

 

Altho we generally keep it on the QT since we've gone "venomous", Renee and I know SH pretty well (we used to breed them), and we're actually still mods on SH.org, so we can help out with SH questions too.

 

Zia's tank is one of the prettiest SH tanks I've ever seen...puts our "main" SH tank we had to shame. Neither of us had the time or patience to keep gorgonians, so it was macro all the way.

Coming from a fellow seahorse keeper that's so flattering and kind of you to say!!

 

Here's what it looked like before I took it down when we moved:

 

 

I have to agree with JLynn and say this is by far the best use of Tonga Branch ive ever seen. It's such a awkward rock to work with but looks so amazing when used right and you nailed! This tanks looks so soothing and natural and can i just say that your macros blow mine away by miles. They look so mature and lush and what a beautiful picture, thanks for sharing!! Those ponies

 

I just bought my seahorses They are shipping out on Monday for delivery on Tuesday of next week! I am going to be so anxious/giddy until then!

 

They're coming from Southwatch Seahorse (the same place Zia's seahorses are from) and I got to pick out my two ponies from the females they currently have available. Here are the two that I picked. One is a smaller female around 3" long and the other is a larger female around 4.5" long (the one with cerri).

 

Pony #1 I love her white patches!

 

Pony #2 Big girl with great color and cerri!

Cant get over how exquisite these ponies look. I also like the size difference and that novelty will be fun for to enjoy while it last. The cirri on that purdy lady is outstanding. So glad you went that route.

[Felicia]

Very well said Felicia, i think your spot on with your view on assumptions of what people have about the difficulty of keeping seahorse tanks. You are so articulate and well spoken, i always love reading your posts. Thanks for always kind words on my setup

Cant get over how exquisite these ponies look. I also like the size difference and that novelty will be fun for to enjoy while it last. The cirri on that purdy lady is outstanding. So glad you went that route.

Thanks, Zia! I'm glad you enjoy my posts and think they are well written. I have to spend a lot of time expressing my research to different sets of people that I have a lot of practice at expressing my ideas in writing. I don't write the same way on here, but I think that practice carries over to how I write ideas in this hobby

 

All the kind words are well earned. That tank is just amazing! Its the tank that has inspired seahorse fever on N-R!

 

I am so glad you like the ponies I picked! I know you have an eye for exotic and unique seahorses, so I'm glad you approve of the ones I'm getting. I'm excited to see them interact with that size difference. It should be cute until the smaller one catches up in size. I can't get over how tiny the one looks in that photo. Based on the hand for scale, does she look smaller than the size Pony and Tailes were when you got them?

 

I really am glad I ended up going with Southwatch. I have figured out that email is just not a good idea with them. Also, Jon can come off a bit unhelpful and abrupt at first but once he knew I was really interested in purchasing and I got him talking, he was super helpful. He listened to exactly what I was looking for and seemed to have a good grasp of my requests. He was very prompt sending me the photos of the available female seahorses and we texted back and forth about the ponies. I even called him back later after placing the order because I realized I had a question and he was still helpful. Hopefully the shipping will go well. I double checked and USPS express is supposed to arrive in 1 day from their location in Florida to my house.

[Felicia]

Hey guys! I just added an index of active N-R seahorse threads to the first post of this thread. If you guys know of any others, please let me know!

 

I also added links to sources for captive bred seahorses and links to helpful information and articles to the first post in this thread. If anyone has anything to add, just let me know!

[Zia]

Thanks, Zia! I'm glad you enjoy my posts and think they are well written. I have to spend a lot of time expressing my research to different sets of people that I have a lot of practice at expressing my ideas in writing. I don't write the same way on here, but I think that practice carries over to how I write ideas in this hobby

 

All the kind words are well earned. That tank is just amazing! Its the tank that has inspired seahorse fever on N-R!

 

I am so glad you like the ponies I picked! I know you have an eye for exotic and unique seahorses, so I'm glad you approve of the ones I'm getting. I'm excited to see them interact with that size difference. It should be cute until the smaller one catches up in size. I can't get over how tiny the one looks in that photo. Based on the hand for scale, does she look smaller than the size Pony and Tailes were when you got them?

 

I really am glad I ended up going with Southwatch. I have figured out that email is just not a good idea with them. Also, Jon can come off a bit unhelpful and abrupt at first but once he knew I was really interested in purchasing and I got him talking, he was super helpful. He listened to exactly what I was looking for and seemed to have a good grasp of my requests. He was very prompt sending me the photos of the available female seahorses and we texted back and forth about the ponies. I even called him back later after placing the order because I realized I had a question and he was still helpful. Hopefully the shipping will go well. I double checked and USPS express is supposed to arrive in 1 day from their location in Florida to my house.

Your research and passion translates in your posts for sure!!

Yes, she's definitely smaller than both my girls when i got em. She's going to be a cutie, cant wait to see your pictures of them. COME ON TUESDAY ALREADY! Both of mine looked about the size of your bigger one with cirri.

 

Glad you had a positive experience thus far with Jon at SW. No doubt his quality is great. The fact that your in a guaranteed 1 day zone, you wont have the same experience i did.

 

Hey guys! I just added an index of active N-R seahorse threads to the first post of this thread. If you guys know of any others, please let me know!

Great job!! Ill have to check that out! Your a very responsible thread owner/stater what ever you would call it It's late.

Your going to make a great VP of your local reef club!

 

Here's a older video but i updated it with a little new content. Ill repost it here

[Felicia]

Yes, she's definitely smaller than both my girls when i got em. She's going to be a cutie, cant wait to see your pictures of them. COME ON TUESDAY ALREADY! Both of mine looked about the size of your bigger one with cirri.

She's such a cute tiny thing. I hope the fact that she's so small isn't an issue. I assume they wouldn't send her if she was too small for shipping. I need it to be Tuesday, now!

 

Glad you had a positive experience thus far with Jon at SW. No doubt his quality is great. The fact that your in a guaranteed 1 day zone, you wont have the same experience i did.

l could definitely tell that getting ahold of them for assistance quickly during a shipping fiasco would not go well. I had to try a few times before I was able to get ahold of them. Luckily today they answered their phones and were helpful. I'm just keeping my fingers crossed the shipping all goes smoothly! I've never had an issue with USPS since I moved here though :knock on wood:

 

Great job!! Ill have to check that out! Your a very responsible thread owner/stater what ever you would call it It's late.

Your going to make a great VP of your local reef club!

I figured since I spent so much time googling for info, that I'd put it all in one place for people on N-R that want to start a seahorse tank. Might as well have some good information on the first post of "The Seahorse Club". I'm glad you appreciate my effort even if you were having word problems

 

Here's a older video but i updated it with a little new content. Ill repost it here

Zia, I can't get enough of your videos. I know I'd seen it before but still...

I really like the commentary you added. Jerry is so fat! My jawfish are well on their way to getting fat

[Polarcollision]

Felicia, your seahorse tank looks fantastic! It's realy coming together nicely. I love the design element of all the verical lines (especially the rock towers mixed in) and the clusters of colored gorgs. Are they all photosynthetic, or is that less of a concern because of how much food the seahorses need? Zia -- you've got some serious competition headed your way. I expect the two of you to continue to out-do each other--for our enjoyment. :-)

 

So, as I'm learning how to set up a system with a sump, I notice that Felicia is keeping the tank around 73-75 degrees for the horses. But Zia has all tanks pumbed together so I'm assuming the temp is higher to support SPS and other corals, right? I am planning to plumb together a 30 gallon long for a mixed reef and a tall display fuge for the horses. Zia's horses don't appear to be distressed at all, so I'm wondering how important it is to maintain the lower temperature setting?

 

Aaand more practical questions, if you don't mind:

What skimmers do you both use?

Do you use any reactors or other media to control nitrates/phosphates?

What about dosing for alk/ca?

Any other equipment for controlling the environment, say, a chiller, etc.?

 

 

Edit: Felicia, thanks so much for putting this thread together! It's already super useful.

[glennr1978]

My wife shot down the idea of another tank so no seahorses for me.....for now. I'm persistent, I'll get them eventually.

[JLynn]

...how important it is to maintain the lower temperature setting?

 

Aaand more practical questions, if you don't mind:

What skimmers do you both use?

Do you use any reactors or other media to control nitrates/phosphates?

What about dosing for alk/ca?

Any other equipment for controlling the environment, say, a chiller, etc?.

As for the importance of keeping lower temperatures, it has little to do with comfort, but rather with a particular scientific study which discovered that certain species of bacteria which seahorses are particularly vulnerable to reproducing exponentially more quickly at temps above 75 F and far more slowly at 68 F and below. This is why tropical seahorses should without exception be kept at temps between 72-74 F: in as small a body of water like our tanks, any small amount of bacteria will quickly infest every corner at higher temps. This is also why infected seahorses are quarantined at 68 F; slower reproduction rates give the seahorse a better chance of fighting off the infection and give the medicine more time to do its job. So to answer your question about chillers, they are absolutely necessary. Corals can live at 72 F, as well. It is in the bottom of their recommended range, but I have never heard anything about it being harmful to them. Most SPS are unsuitable seahorse tankmates, by the way. Birdsnest corals are the only stonies I know of that are safe for SH. Hope that helps!

Is this the tank on RC you were referring to?

It is indeed. Isn't it gorgeous?

[FlowerMama]

I just noticed tonight that Saltcritters has $5 dwarf ponies and they have decapsulated brine shrimp egg food. That's crazy.

[JLynn]

Wild caught dwarves do go for pretty cheap. $5 is probably the cheapest I've heard of, though. As sad as it is to have lost my dwarves, I can't say I miss hatching and enriching brine shrimp.

[Felicia]

Felicia, your seahorse tank looks fantastic! It's realy coming together nicely. I love the design element of all the verical lines (especially the rock towers mixed in) and the clusters of colored gorgs. Are they all photosynthetic, or is that less of a concern because of how much food the seahorses need? Zia -- you've got some serious competition headed your way. I expect the two of you to continue to out-do each other--for our enjoyment. :-)

 

So, as I'm learning how to set up a system with a sump, I notice that Felicia is keeping the tank around 73-75 degrees for the horses. But Zia has all tanks pumbed together so I'm assuming the temp is higher to support SPS and other corals, right? I am planning to plumb together a 30 gallon long for a mixed reef and a tall display fuge for the horses. Zia's horses don't appear to be distressed at all, so I'm wondering how important it is to maintain the lower temperature setting?

 

Aaand more practical questions, if you don't mind:

What skimmers do you both use?

Do you use any reactors or other media to control nitrates/phosphates?

What about dosing for alk/ca?

Any other equipment for controlling the environment, say, a chiller, etc.?

 

 

Edit: Felicia, thanks so much for putting this thread together! It's already super useful.

Hey! Thanks so much for the compliments! Hopefully I can get this tank looking anywhere close to how nice Zia's tank looks. He's about to outdo me with his new larger upgrade, so I don't think we'll disappoint you Actually, every single one of my gorgonians is photosynthetic, but I'm sure I could manage some NPS ones based on the messy feeding of the seahorses and the fact that I'm planning to feed phyto every few days for the sponges anyway. Also, the spiral wire coral is NPS (not a gorgonian though) and I make sure it gets phyto every other day or so.

 

I'm glad you're enjoying the vertical lines! I'm used to my long shallow 30 gallon reef tank to scaping for this tall cube is totally new for me. I'm doing the best I can to work with the height and I hope that the gorgs will all grow tall to fill in the height.

 

I believe Jlynn mostly answered the temperature question. It pretty much is entirely related to bacterial growth from everything I've read. At higher temperatures, the harmful bacteria ca grow much more quickly making them more of a threat to susceptible ponies, while keeping the temperatures lower limits their growth. Zia's horses must be some healthy things with great immune systems because they seem to be great at slightly higher temperatures. If you plan to do the same as Zia, I would just drop the temperature of your system down to like 75 (if you can) because the corals will all be fine. Lower temperature will make some corals (like SPS) slow down their growth a bit, but they will be every bit as happy, healthy, and colorful.

 

Another option for controlling the bacteria would be to get a really good UV sterilizer if you plan to keep the temperature higher. Zia and I had a big discussion about them though and decided that they wouldn't work well in a pony tank with so many corals because the sterilizer would kill off the micronutrients in the water that the corals eat.

 

Now for your other questions:

1) My tank is just a little AIO so I'm using a Tunze 9002 that is designed to fit into the back chambers of an AIO tank. Its small, but rated for 55 gallons and under, so it should at least help some with keeping the water clean. Zia however has a sump, so I'm sure he has a much larger skimmer.

 

2) Right now I'm using filter floss, Purigen, and Chemipure elite in my media basket. That's what I use in my main tank with great results. Its been pointed out to me that I may want to consider also putting in some GFO or Phosban if I start to have algae problems from the phosphates from the frequent feedings with the seahorses. I'll probably end up getting some Phosban soon. I don't have any reactors though, all of this is just on my media rack in the first chamber of my AIO.

 

3) I don't plan to dose Ca and Alk in this tank since it will be all soft corals and gorgonians. Also, its definitely going to be getting weekly water changes to keep the water quality good for the seahorses, so that should replenish all the Ca and Alk without dosing.

 

4) I am not running a chiller because I live in an area with mild weather year round. Our temperature 90% of the year is somewhere between 50 and 70 F. We don't have air conditioners, so my apartment is pretty much always the same temperature as it is outside. This means that almost everyday of the year, I can keep my tank at about 73F without needing a chiller. I do however have a heater on a controller because I leave my windows open at night and it gets down into the 50's. There are a few days a year here where the temperature gets up into the 80's, but it never lasts long enough to heat my aquariums up very much. On those days, my seahorse tank may climb to like 76, but it will only be for a day or two and shouldn't be too much of a worry. However, depending on where you live, you may need a chiller to keep the temperatures low enough if you don't want to run any risk of bacterial infections with the seahorses.

 

I hope that helps! I'm glad people are enjoying this thread and finding it useful!

[Felicia]

My wife shot down the idea of another tank so no seahorses for me.....for now. I'm persistent, I'll get them eventually.

Oh no! I suggest you start doing really nice things like making her breakfast in bed and massaging her feet after a long day until she caves

 

As for the importance of keeping lower temperatures, it has little to do with comfort, but rather with a particular scientific study which discovered that certain species of bacteria which seahorses are particularly vulnerable to reproducing exponentially more quickly at temps above 75 F and far more slowly at 68 F and below. This is why tropical seahorses should without exception be kept at temps between 72-74 F: in as small a body of water like our tanks, any small amount of bacteria will quickly infest every corner at higher temps. This is also why infected seahorses are quarantined at 68 F; slower reproduction rates give the seahorse a better chance of fighting off the infection and give the medicine more time to do its job. So to answer your question about chillers, they are absolutely necessary. Corals can live at 72 F, as well. It is in the bottom of their recommended range, but I have never heard anything about it being harmful to them. Most SPS are unsuitable seahorse tankmates, by the way. Birdsnest corals are the only stonies I know of that are safe for SH. Hope that helps! It is indeed. Isn't it gorgeous?

Great info! Thanks! And yes, that is a very pretty tank! Personally I'm more partial to having gorgonians and soft corals mixed in with the macros, but for a planted only tank it is just beautiful.

 

I just noticed tonight that Saltcritters has $5 dwarf ponies and they have decapsulated brine shrimp egg food. That's crazy.

Yep, wild caught dwarf seahorses aren't expensive at all. I think a lot of it is that they reproduce very prolifically, so you can buy a couple and have a dozen of them in no time. That keeps the prices on them low. Also, since even tank bred ones have to be fed live food, people don't worry as much about buying captive bred ones. With the larger seahorses, captive bred ponies are so much easier to feed since they eat frozen mysis and just do so much better in aquariums than the wild caught ones. Breeding however takes a lot of work and isn't cheap, which is why they're expensive. People are willing to pay the higher price though for healthy seahorses that are adapted to aquarium life and are easy to feed. I would honestly recommend getting captive bred dwarves too, because even though they still need live food, they weren't pulled from the ocean. They'll be much less likely to carry any diseases and parasites, and will be much more used to aquarium life.

[JLynn]

Yeah, I am a big fan of gorgonians as well. I only wish that more were available! I am going to try to get a Gorgonia Mariae for my tank, it is one of my favorites, but they are just so rare because of the US collection laws .The one with the seagrass is even better in the later pictures when the grass is all grown out. I think the best part of pledosophy's is just how mature the look was. It is a very different aesthetic when plants and corals are allowed to grow out, rather than packing in a bunch of frags into as small of a space as possible.

[Felicia]

Yeah, I am a big fan of gorgonians as well. I only wish that more were available! I am going to try to get a Gorgonia Mariae for my tank, it is one of my favorites, but they are just so rare because of the US collection laws .The one with the seagrass is even better in the later pictures when the grass is all grown out. I think the best part of pledosophy's is just how mature the look was. It is a very different aesthetic when plants and corals are allowed to grow out, rather than packing in a bunch of frags into as small of a space as possible.

I haven't been looking for particular species of gorgs or any rare ones, but KP Aquatics (sealifeinc.net) has a pretty good variety of basic, colorful photosynthetic gorgonians. They're prices are great and they send nice big ones with great color. That is why I just ordered most of my gorgonians for my new tank from.

 

I totally agree about the mature look. Tanks that are grown in and look natural are just so stunning. That's why most of the tanks that win TOTM on here are over a year old. Filled in tanks with mature corals always look better than tanks covered in frags. I'm trying to avoid having very many frags in my new seahorse tank to skip over that phase, but I will have some frags of soft corals. Luckily the gorgonians and sponges aren't frags and will make the tank look more filled in and natural.

[JLynn]

I did notice that KP Aquatics had a nice selection. Aquascapers.com also has some good colorful ones. My biggest issue here will be hunting down the NPS gorgonians I want. I am, for the most part keeping the gorgonians purple and blue, so I don't want the red or yellow finger gorgonian or the red sea fan, the three most commonly available ones. I want a Menella sp. and a Gorgonia Mariae. Now, Divers Den has had Gorgonia Mariae available twice this year, so it may simply be a matter of patience on that count, but I am not sure what to do about the Menella... I suppose I could get a frag from someone on RC or something, but few people seem to have them. On the plus side, both of those NPS grow in stunning shades of sapphire and royal purple; they will undoubtedly be the gemstones of my gorg. collection!

[DannaM]

Awesome, awesome thread...these are some of the most beautiful tanks I've ever seen